quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:
I'm with Gustofer on this. This is considered local to us as well. Moscow Idaho is a relatively small collage town where the bulk of its residences didn't lock their doors at night as a rule. That's changed now after this crime occurred. It demonstrates that this can happen anywhere, not just the large liberal blue states.

And your local news should have covered the ever-loving crap out of it (which they did, no doubt) but for the rest of the country, the interest is questionable at best.

The way the news media grabbed onto this story is a variation on Missing White Woman Syndrome. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...white_woman_syndrome

Go to FNC website right now, and you will see no less than 10, ten, separate news headlines and videos on the Idaho murders. Yeah, not overdone at all.

It's been covered here in serious fashion but not really sensationalized. Moscow is a very small town and things like this don't happen here. Not sure that many people live behind unlocked doors these days.

quote:

Originally posted by vinnybass:
Idaho has the death penalty. I'd say a conviction in this case deserves it.

They recently postponed an execution, unable to get the drugs.

I'm partial to the firing squad.

I'm very taken by the idea of a stake-out on a fire-ant hill. Given the shortage of fire-ants right now, 'death by fire-ant' could last a lot longer than 'death by a thousand fire-ants' - I'd say go for it.

Or firing squad by just one nigh-on blind shooter.

Young, long blond hair, kinda pretty, seemingly innocent. That’s a big part of it, just saying.

I’m glad the alleged perp is caught. Once details are sorted out, fire up ole sparky.

I've not paid much attention to this, but the bit that I've seen in passing has been disturbing due to the media and public response. Like others have said, this is a local incident, not a national concern, but the media has turned it into a ghoulish spectacle for the whole country to watch, with predictable results.

People who know nothing about investigations other than what they've seen on CSI or NCIS are criticizing the police response because they want unrealistic immediate results, and are subjecting the agencies involved to extra pressure while they're trying to work what is likely the most difficult case in their history. Add to that witch hunts where a bunch of internet commandos with no evidence are pointing fingers at innocent people like the neighbor kid or ex-boyfriend who had nothing to do with it. That media-fueled stupidity causes real-life problems for innocent people.

I'm glad they caught the POS, and hopefully it's the right guy and they've got a strong enough case to make it stick. There's a lot of folks who should be eating crow right now for some of the comments and actions taken in the past month, but I don't imagine we'll see that happen.

quote:

Originally posted by sourdough44:
Young, long blond hair, kinda pretty, seemingly innocent. That’s a big part of it, just saying.

Gee, ya think?

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Tabloid sensationalism

I've been trying to avoid this stuff for weeks.

They're force-feeding this shit to people. If Nancy Grace is on it, you should avoid it.

The whole thing is shameful

And I don't care who was arrested or their name or if their neighbors say "He was a quiet guy, always kept to himself". I don't want to hear stories from the parents of the deceased, nor of the first responders or these kids' classmates.

They've taken these kids bodies and they're running them through a sausage grinder 24/7, because they know people will tune in for this stuff and that means advertising revenue.

Stories early on about blood dripping from walls and all that. Damn. I'd take a flamethrower to these people.

Gotta agree.
Makes the money for the media and that's all they care about.
No bearing or effect on my life, have my own things to worry about.

Coverage of the murder of four people today is not unlike coverage of a similar four person murder in 1959, although the immediacy of our media makes it terribly easy to share with detail the horrible nature of the criminal acts.

The coverage of the 1959 murders created a megastar in Truman Capote, including a best-selling book and at least two movies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Cold_Blood

I think the human natural fear of death by persons unknown, the desire for security afforded by authorities, and the ease of sharing info today leads to this sensational coverage.

My takeaway is that the police should be commended for finding a person with (a) location (b) means. I will be interested to learn (c) motive and (d) connection to the deceased. We can only hope that society finds a way to identify such issues in people before they commit heinous acts of violence.

Local coverage of such an event is expected and it is appropriate in instances such as this.

National coverage, however, should have been altogether different. OK, they pick up the story off the wire and publish it. And then, occasional updates, perhaps- assuming there is anything new to report, and only at intervals of days or weeks, not multiple updates each day on multiple stories. The coverage should be factual in nature, leaving the sensational language and blind speculation out of it.

You know- Journalism??

Anybody?

Again, a great rule of thumb is to avoid anything being covered by Nancy Grace, because once that succubus gets hold of a story, it turns to pure shit.

I agree. Before the Kennedy assassination men lined up at the drugstore to get the paper's latest editon of the news. Sometimes they got the paper from the newsboy on the street. Things were factual and generally toned down.
Then TV news started,CNN and 24 hour news cycle followed. Somewhere in there Nancy Grace popped up.

Honestly , way down here in Louisiana a lot of people were following it . More so than the daily killings in New Orleans that are more local than Idaho .

And why not? The 24 hour news portals were presenting this lurid shit on a silver platter. If you wanted to avoid it, the only way to do so entirely was to not visit those sites (or channels) at all. They had this garbage splashed as headlines on a daily basis.

People simply have to turn off this stuff.

I agree that this incident was national news. Egregious murders, killer on the loose, no suspects yet. It should be covered, and then any real updates to the investigation reported on.

But as with all other similar stories, that was not the case with this one. The media basically made a daily reality show out of the killings. Just like the Johnny Depp shit, a minor news event. The MSM will just take these "news" stories and pound them into entertainment, creating characters (protagonists, villains), plots, themes, conflict, etc out of thin air. It really does become an entertainment product.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
And why not? The 24 hour news portals were presenting this lurid shit on a silver platter. If you wanted to avoid it, the only way to do so entirely was to not visit those sites (or channels) at all. They had this garbage splashed as headlines on a daily basis.
People simply have to turn off this stuff.

But that's the point . People didn't want to turn it off . I didn't meet anybody that said they wished the TV stations would stop reporting on it . Right or wrong , people WERE interested in it , and even more so now that they have a suspect .

If these murders hadn't been splashed all over the news every day for weeks, at what level might you gauge the interest?

You see, that is the point- it is the muckraking behavior of the news outlet that is the cause. Mindless hogs at the trough would have nothing to scarf up if it wasn't put there in the first place.

Gullible, unimaginitive people are nothing new. An obligation exists within the institution of the press to behave ethically. Just because these vultures and jackals ignore that obligation, that doesn't mean it's not there.

These "journalists" are supposed to know better.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
If these murders hadn't been splashed all over the news every day for weeks, at what level might you gauge the interest?

You see, that is the point- it is the muckraking behavior of the news outlet that is the cause. Mindless hogs at the trough would have nothing to scarf up if it wasn't put there in the first place.

Gullible, unimaginitive people are nothing new. An obligation exists within the institution of the press to behave ethically. Just because these vultures and jackals ignore that obligation, that doesn't mean it's not there.

These "journalists" are supposed to know better.

I agree. How many YEARS did national media milk the JonBenet Ramsey story? What a crock.

They are covering that story still. The JBR story is perhaps the most lurid of them all.

At intervals, they truck out:

Jimmy Hoffa

D.B. Cooper

Amelia Earhart

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
If these murders hadn't been splashed all over the news every day for weeks, at what level might you gauge the interest?

You see, that is the point- it is the muckraking behavior of the news outlet that is the cause. Mindless hogs at the trough would have nothing to scarf up if it wasn't put there in the first place.

Gullible, unimaginitive people are nothing new. An obligation exists within the institution of the press to behave ethically. Just because these vultures and jackals ignore that obligation, that doesn't mean it's not there.

These "journalists" are supposed to know better.

Exactly.
I couldn't name any of the people that were murdered because I won't watch any of the crap passed off as "journalism" because it isn't.
Another thing is they don't care personally about anything they report on. This is purely for ratings and revenue. Leeches that suck any bit of morality out of anything they talk about.

I see it like the ringing phone.
Some just can't help but answer it.
Gory tale.. click.

It's been no secret that people do some pretty messed up shit for quite a while.
I see no need to immerse myself in it to get a taste.

The ones involved certainly don't need to be hammered with it nonstop and I'm sure they don't care to be constantly reminded how horrible it was for their loved ones.